Environmentalists Make
Last Gasp Attempt to Kill America's Most Environmentally-Friendly
Major Energy Source

DATE: April 22, 2004

BACKGROUND: America has nearly one hundred million gallons
of high-level nuclear waste and over 40,000 metric tons of spent
nuclear fuel. It presently is scattered in 131 aging temporary
surface storage sites located in 39 states.

Since 1978, the federal government has
been studying the best alternatives for safely storing this material.
In 1982, Congress passed a law requiring the establishment of
a used nuclear fuel repository. In 1987, Congress determined
that the best location for a repository is Yucca Mountain, located
in Nye County, Nevada, approximately 100 miles northwest of Las
Vegas.

On July 9, 2002, the Senate voted to
approve development of Yucca Mountain. On July 23, 2002, when
President Bush signed H.J. Res. 87, the final legal hurdle to
development was overcome.

Or was it?

Anti-nuclear activists now are filing
lawsuits in the hope of forcing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
to deny the U.S. Department of Energy the construction permit
it needs to complete the Yucca Mountain project.

Some activists are Nevadans affected
by the NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) syndrome, but others have an
agenda that is far more significant: They believe that if they
shut down Yucca Mountain, a nuclear power plant will never again
be built in the United States.

TEN SECOND RESPONSE: Should the anti-nuclear activists
carry the day and halt the Yucca Mountain repository project,
they will compromise the safety of the American people and increase
our reliance on less environmentally-friendly energy sources.

THIRTY SECOND RESPONSE: Nuclear energy is probably the most environmentally-friendly
major energy source we have. It also is one of the most reliable.
Anti-nuclear activists claim to oppose the Yucca Mountain repository
for safety reasons, but using Yucca would be safer than leaving
nuclear waste scattered across the U.S.

DISCUSSION:
A study by nuclear physicists Gerald E. Marsh and George Stanford
after the 9-11 terrorist attacks determined that the most vulnerable
part of a nuclear power plant for a terrorist hit is an aboveground
wet storage facility for spent nuclear fuel. Today, such pools
exist. Within Yucca Mountain, however, spent fuel would be stored
in extremely durable containers under 1,000 feet of solid rock,
far beyond the reach of terrorists.

If the Yucca Mountain complex is completed,
nuclear waste and spent fuel will be secured in a single, deeply
underground secure site in a geographically stable area further
from any metropolitan area than any of the 131 temporary storage
sites currently in operation. Presently, more than 161 million
Americans live within 75 miles of one of the temporary storage
sites.

The Yucca Mountain site has been studied
for 26 years -- more than twice the time it took to plan and
complete the moon landing. Taxpayers already have invested --
according to an April 21 Fox News Channel Report by William La
Jeunesse -- $8 billion in the project.

A2001 National Academy of Sciences report
said "After four decades of study, the geological repository
option remains the only scientifically credible, long-term solution
for safely isolating waste without having to rely on active management."

The average American home operates five
hours per day on nuclear-generated energy. Forty percent of our
nation's warships operate on nuclear power. Twenty percent of
our nation's electricity comes from nuclear power. It's time
to build a safe spent fuel repository.

Gerald E. Marsh and George S. Stanford,
"Terrorism and Nuclear Power: What are the Risks?"
National Center for Public Policy Research National Policy Analysis
#374, at http://www.nationalcenter.org/NPA374.html